School Consolidation: Whither China's Rural Education?

The School Consolidation Policy in the 1990s significantly impacted Chinese rural compulsory education and Chinese rural communities. Although this policy has been involved in many negative news reports, there is a lack of scientific research on it. To address the research gap, this paper first delineates the evolution of this policy, which was formed to balance the disparity between urban and rural education, accelerated by rural financial reformation and aborted due to various emerging problems. It then discusses the educational problems caused by the policy including misallocated resources, poor quality, rising costs, student safety issues, high dropout rate, and lost rural culture heritage. Through the analyses, this paper provides a clear picture of the development of Chinese rural education, and offers implications for improving educational policy, promoting educational quality, and securing educational rights of students in rural China.